12.06.2022

The tows for the race start scheduled for 08:00  begin under a bright, cool dawn. The last ones to leave the harbour struggle to reach the start line in a very light wind, so the start is delayed by a quarter of an hour… but miraculously, all the boats leave the start, so there are 170 skippers taking on  the Fastnet adventure! Newly arrived for  the Mini race and former winners of the Mini-Transat, it could be a hard fight on the course!

The start is due west, crosswind, speed is the key and the Protos are very quickly at the head of the fleet. We find Laure Galley and Alexandre Demange on the 1048 in first position. For the Series, the ranking overlaps a lot more, in the first ones we count amongst  others the 910, with Jean Cruse and Tanguy Bourroulec, who already has a great record in the Mini class, the 1009 with Titouan Quiviger and Maxime Abgrall and the 1007 Team Asi with Nicolas Dupard and Damien Fleury, who remain quite steady in  first place at the end of the day. There’s about a 5 hour gap between the first and the last of the fleet at about 21:00, so about 13 hours after the start. The 747 Proto dropped out due to a problem in the rigging. A good 15 knot NNW breeze is forecast for the night, easing off at the end of the night.